Document elimination for compact and secure storage and management thereof

ABSTRACT

Documents, such as those that may or will be the subject of a litigation, may be managed by automatically determining that a document, such as an email or other communication, is privileged or producible such that superfluous documents may be removed to improve data storage and reduce the burden on storage, processing, and communication resources. Additionally, documents such as emails may comprise attached or embedded documents (e.g., attachments) which may be similarly or independently classified from their associated email. After determining privilege, such as via metadata associated with a sender/receiver of an email, similarly categorized documents may be grouped for presentation and/or storage. The documents may be indexed, such as by entries within a production log, to further facilitate accurate production and management of non-privileged documents, as well as, the exclusion of privileged documents. Documents not required for production may be indexed and/or purged from storage.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of, and claims priority to, U.S.patent application Ser. No. 16/131,198 filed on Sep. 14, 2018, which inturn claims priority to Provisional Patent Application No. 62/559,323,filed on Sep. 15, 2017, each of which are incorporated herein byreference in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The systems and methods relate to generating discovery documents and aprivilege log based on electronic files and emails and elimination ofunneeded documents from storage.

BACKGROUND

Document management is a challenging aspect of pre-litigationactivities. Litigants are often required to produce all documentationregarding a particular litigation topic, however, not all documents areproduced due to privilege, usually attorney-client privilege. However,it is not sufficient to merely omit such documents, as an exception tothe privilege may be invoked that may require a privileged document tobe produced. Rather privileged documents must be identified so that bothparties and the court is aware of the existence of the documents,whether or not the documents are produced in discovery or as a courtexhibit.

Litigations may produce large volumes of documents, each of which mustbe produced or logged with a claim to privilege. To incorrectly claimprivilege, when none is entitled, or to omit such a claim, when rightlyjustified, may have serious consequences. The management of suchdocuments is challenging and makes a significant contribution to thecost and availability of litigation, whether the documents are paper orelectronic, such as emails.

SUMMARY

These and other needs are addressed by the various embodiments andconfigurations of the present invention. The present invention canprovide a number of advantages depending on the particularconfiguration. These and other advantages will be apparent from thedisclosure of the invention(s) contained herein.

With respect to certain embodiments disclosed herein, a system, device,or platform is described which is designed to expedite and facilitateelectronic document production in litigation, especially emailproduction. The system processes and parses emails and electronic filesto automate:

Sorting and formatting emails for production

Capturing email attachments, like Word documents, Excel spreadsheets,and other files

Converting emails and attachments to PDFs

Parsing metadata and applying general concepts of attorney-client (andother) privileges to make initial privilege recommendations

Facilitating privilege review, allowing final determination of privilegeand/or confidentiality by user

Preparing privilege log and “production log” per user's finaldetermination

Adding Bates numbers and naming files for production

Delivering production-ready, Bates-stamped files and complete privilegelog; also delivers an indexed, and optionally, hyperlinked “productionlog” for internal use to quickly search and retrieve produced documentsand emails; also delivers complete set of Bates-stamped privilegedfiles, indexed and optionally hyperlinked to privilege log, for internaluse and to enable attorneys to immediately respond to challenges toclaims of privilege.

The phrases “at least one,” “one or more,” “or,” and “and/or” areopen-ended expressions that are both conjunctive and disjunctive inoperation. For example, each of the expressions “at least one of A, B,and C,” “at least one of A, B, or C,” “one or more of A, B, and C,” “oneor more of A, B, or C,” “A, B, and/or C,” and “A, B, or C” means Aalone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and Ctogether, or A, B, and C together.

The term “a” or “an” entity refers to one or more of that entity. Assuch, the terms “a” (or “an”), “one or more,” and “at least one” can beused interchangeably herein. It is also to be noted that the terms“comprising,” “including,” and “having” can be used interchangeably.

The term “automatic” and variations thereof, as used herein, refers toany process or operation, which is typically continuous orsemi-continuous, done without material human input when the process oroperation is performed. However, a process or operation can beautomatic, even though performance of the process or operation usesmaterial or immaterial human input, if the input is received beforeperformance of the process or operation. Human input is deemed to bematerial if such input influences how the process or operation will beperformed. Human input that consents to the performance of the processor operation is not deemed to be “material.”

Aspects of the present disclosure may take the form of an embodimentthat is entirely hardware, an embodiment that is entirely software(including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or anembodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may allgenerally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module,” or “system.”Any combination of one or more computer-readable medium(s) may beutilized. The computer-readable medium may be a computer-readable signalmedium or a computer-readable storage medium. Executable code, forexecution by a processor, is not an unconstrained, abstract set ofcommands written down by a programmer, but rather “machine code”committed to the memory and selected from the specific machine languageinstruction set, or “native instructions,” designed into the hardwareprocessor(s). Each native instruction is a discrete code recognized bythe processing architecture and can specify particular registers forarithmetic, addressing, or control functions. Complex operations are“built up” by combining two or more heterogeneous and/or homogeneoussimple native instructions.

A computer-readable storage medium may be, for example, but not limitedto, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, orsemiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combinationof the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of thecomputer-readable storage medium would include the following: anelectrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computerdiskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory(ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flashmemory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory(CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or anysuitable combination of the foregoing. In the context of this document,a computer-readable storage medium may be any tangible medium that cancontain or store a program for use by or in connection with aninstruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

A computer-readable signal medium may include a propagated data signalwith computer-readable program code embodied therein, for example, inbaseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may takeany of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to,electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. Acomputer-readable signal medium may be any computer-readable medium thatis not a computer-readable storage medium and that can communicate,propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with aninstruction execution system, apparatus, or device. Program codeembodied on a computer-readable medium may be transmitted using anyappropriate medium, including, but not limited to, wireless, wireline,optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination of theforegoing.

The terms “determine,” “calculate,” “compute,” and variations thereof,as used herein, are used interchangeably and include any type ofmethodology, process, mathematical operation or technique.

The term “means” as used herein shall be given its broadest possibleinterpretation in accordance with 35 U.S.C., Section 112(f) and/orSection 112, Paragraph 6. Accordingly, a claim incorporating the term“means” shall cover all structures, materials, or acts set forth herein,and all of the equivalents thereof. Further, the structures, materialsor acts and the equivalents thereof shall include all those described inthe summary, brief description of the drawings, detailed description,abstract, and claims themselves.

The preceding is a simplified summary of the invention to provide anunderstanding of some aspects of the invention. This summary is neitheran extensive nor exhaustive overview of the invention and its variousembodiments. It is intended neither to identify key or critical elementsof the invention nor to delineate the scope of the invention but topresent selected concepts of the invention in a simplified form as anintroduction to the more detailed description presented below. As willbe appreciated, other embodiments of the invention are possibleutilizing, alone or in combination, one or more of the features setforth above or described in detail below. Also, while the disclosure ispresented in terms of exemplary embodiments, it should be appreciatedthat an individual aspect of the disclosure can be separately claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure is described in conjunction with the appendedfigures:

FIG. 1 depicts details of one or more components involved in a discoverydocument and privilege log generation procedure in accordance with atleast some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 depicts additional details of the electronic files of FIG. 1 inaccordance with embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 3 depicts additional details of the email console and individualemails in accordance with embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 4 depicts details of extracted data from one or more emails inaccordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 depicts details of a reconstituted email based on the extracteddata of FIG. 4 in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 depicts details of a resulting document based on thereconstituted email of FIG. 5 in accordance with embodiments of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 7 depicts details relating to classifying email addresses for usewith an automated privilege rule algorithm in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 depicts details relating to applying a privilege weightedcategory to one or more emails in accordance with embodiments of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 9 depicts details directed to applying one or more documentsequence identifiers to production and privileged documents andgenerating one or more production logs in accordance with embodiments ofthe present disclosure;

FIG. 10 depicts a first flow diagram directed to user account creationin accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 11 depicts a second flow diagram directed to case and job creationin accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 12 depicts a third flow diagram directed to obtaining one or moreelectronic documents for processing in accordance with embodiments ofthe present disclosure;

FIG. 13 depicts a fourth flow diagram directed to extracting, parsing,and reconstructing data obtained from one or more email documents inaccordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 14 depicts a fifth flow diagram directed to extracting, parsing,and reconstructing data obtained from one or more electronic documentsin accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 15 depicts a sixth flow diagram directed to applying a privilegerule algorithm based on extracted and parsed data obtained from one ormore emails in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 16 depicts a seventh flow diagram directed to applying one or moredocument sequence identifiers to production and privileged documents andgenerating one or more production logs in accordance with embodiments ofthe present disclosure;

FIG. 17 depicts an eighth flow diagram directed transferringdeliverables in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 18 depicts details of a block diagram directed to a discoverydocument and privilege log generation system in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 19 depicts details relating to classifying email addresses for usewith an automated privilege rule algorithm in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 20A-20B depicts details relating to applying a privilege weightedcategory to one or more emails in accordance with embodiments of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 21 depicts a process flow in accordance with embodiments of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 22 depicts a case/job creation process flow in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 23 depicts an upload process flow in accordance with embodiments ofthe present disclosure;

FIG. 24 depicts an email preprocessing process flow in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 25 depicts a file preprocessing process flow in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 26 depicts a privilege review process flow in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 27 depicts a file delivery process flow in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 28 depicts privilege and production log completion process flow inaccordance with embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 29 depicts a payment, data retrieval, and data retention processflow in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 30 depicts overview process flow in accordance with embodiments ofthe present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The ensuing description provides embodiments only, and is not intendedto limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of the claims.Rather, the ensuing description will provide those skilled in the artwith an enabling description for implementing the embodiments. It beingunderstood that various changes may be made in the function andarrangement of elements without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe appended claims.

The disclosure herein is illustrated below in conjunction with adiscovery document and privilege log generation system and method inaccordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. Although wellsuited for use with various electronic documents, such as emails, emailattachments, portable document formats, spreadsheet documents, and thelike, the embodiments of the disclosure are not limited to a use withany particular type of email system document format and are not limitedto a specific configuration of system elements. Those skilled in the artwill recognize that the disclosed techniques may be utilized andimplemented to generate discovery documents and privilege logs from avariety of different sources.

While the disclosure is primarily directed to emails, it should beappreciated that in other embodiments, the source of the communicationmay be in a form different from emails and the electronic communicationdocuments may comprise social media message (e.g., Facebook Messenger),“tweet” on Twitter, posting, instant message, or other form electroniccommunication that may be, or be converted to, an electronic document.

The exemplary systems and methods of this invention will also bedescribed in relation to software, modules, and associated hardware.However, to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the present invention, thefollowing description omits well-known structures, components, anddevices that may be shown in block diagram form or are otherwisesummarized. It should also be appreciated that a description, withrespect to one implementation type (e.g., a module), is an embodimentwherein other implementation types (e.g., circuits) are utilized arealso contemplated and may be utilized without departing from the scopeof the disclosure herein, similarly, unless otherwise specified, oneembodiment of an implementation may be applied to another embodiment ofa different form of software and/or hardware (e.g., client-only,client-server, software-as-a service (SAS), distributed software (e.g.,“cloud” implementation, etc.)).

In one embodiment, a method for document compaction is disclosed,comprising: receiving a set of electronic documents, wherein one or moreelectronic documents includes an attached electronic document;extracting and storing metadata associated with each electronic documentof the set of electronic documents; parsing the metadata to extractinformation identifying a sender and a receiver; reconstructing andconverting each electronic document of the set of electronic documentsinto a first format, wherein an ordering of the electronic documentsmaintains an ordered relationship between the one or more electronicdocument and the attached electronic document; classifying eachelectronic document of the set of electronic documents as privileged orproducible based on the previously extracted and stored metadata;grouping similar electronic documents in the first format based on aprivilege and producibility classification; and providing the groupingof documents, together with one or more document logs identifying eachdocument in the grouping of documents, to a user.

In another embodiment, a method for document management is disclosed,comprising: receiving an electronic document; extracting and storingmetadata associated with the electronic document; reconstructing andconverting the electronic document into a first format; classifying theelectronic document as one of privileged or producible based on thepreviously extracted and stored metadata; and providing the document,together with a document log identifying the electronic document, to auser.

In another embodiment, a system for document management is disclosed,comprising: a processor with a communication interface; a datarepository accessible, via the communication interface, to theprocessor; wherein the processor: receives an electronic document;extracts and stores metadata associated with the electronic document;reconstructing and converting the electronic document into a firstformat; classifies the electronic document as one of privileged orproducible based on the previously extracted and stored metadata; andprovides the document, together with a document log identifying theelectronic document, to a display device for viewing by a user.

The discovery document and privilege log generation system operates on aset of electronic documents, (e.g., email documents), extracts andstores metadata associated with each electronic document of the set ofelectronic documents, reconstructs the electronic document, includingmaintaining an effective ordering of related electronic documents,converts the electronic document into a first format, classifies, to avarying degree, each electronic document of the set of electronicdocuments as to whether a document is privileged or producible based onthe extracted metadata, groups similar electronic documents based on thedegree of privilege and producibility, places a unique “Bates” numberelectronically on each page of each document, and provides the groupingof documents, together with one or more document logs, to a user.Accordingly, the discovery document and privilege log generation systemprovides a system and method to overcome the technical challengesassociated with generating producible documents and document logsthroughout one or more phases of litigation. That is, the discoverydocument and privilege log generation system is an online platformdesigned to expedite and facilitate electronic document production inlitigation, especially with respect to email production.

More specifically, the discovery document and privilege log generationsystem processes and parses emails and electronic files to sort andformat emails for production by capturing email attachments, like Worddocuments, Excel spreadsheets, and other files, and converts emails andattachments to PDFs. While PDFs are a common document format, in otherembodiments, other document formats may be used that are immutable, withrespect to the document itself, but which may be annotated, such as viaredactions, Bates numbers, or other markings. The annotations may or maynot be immutable once added. The discovery document and privilege loggeneration system parses metadata and applies general concepts ofattorney-client (and other) privileges to make initial privilegerecommendations, thereby facilitating privilege review and allowingfinal determination of privilege and/or confidentiality by a user.Moreover, the discovery document and privilege log generation systemprepares privilege logs and “production logs” per a user's finaldetermination and further adds bates numbers while naming files forproduction. Accordingly, the discovery document and privilege loggeneration system delivers production-ready, Bates-stamped filestogether with a complete privilege log, as well as a “production log,”i.e., a description of each document produced (as opposed to withheldunder a claim of privilege). Accordingly, the “production log” may beindexed and hyperlinked for internal use to quickly search and retrieveproduced documents and emails.

In another embodiment, the documents may be stored, processed, and/ortransmitted following conversion to the first format absent privilegeddocuments or privileged portions of documents. Accordingly, systemsutilized may have a reduced burden by avoiding further storing,processing, and/or transmitting of documents that are required forproduction. In another embodiment, performing a conversion factor at onetime, which may utilize one computer, service, etc., and convertingdocuments into a reduced, or even one, number of file types reduces theoverhead required for subsequent computers to have, execute, andmaintain all of the various applications, plug-ins, utilities, etc. forreading a variety of file formats. For example, one system may utilizethe appropriate software to convert emails, Word, Excel, images,drawing, text, etc., files into a single format, such as PDF. As aresult, all subsequent devices, e.g., computers, laptops, mobilecomputing devices, etc., need only have a PDF view in order to view alldocuments, regardless of their original format. As a result, documentdiscovery systems may require less processing overhead by allowing asingle device to perform the conversion processes.

FIG. 1 depicts details of one or more components involved in a discoverydocument and privilege log generation process in accordance with atleast some embodiments of the present disclosure. One or more sources ofelectronic information, such as one or more emails 104 from a depictedemail console 100, one or more electronic file documents 108, and/or oneor more scanned electronic documents 112 depicting a physical documentmay be obtained, gathered, sorted, and/or grouped into one or moredeliverables 116 including privileged and production documents togetherwith one or more privilege and production logs. As one example, emails104 from the email console 100 may be grouped into one or more foldersfor processing, whereby a privilege algorithm may preliminarily tag eachemail, including an attachment, as either a privileged or produceddocument. The emails 104 and attachments may be converted into auser-friendly format, such as a portable document format (PDF), Batesstamped, and then delivered to a user. The user-friendly format mayfurther include hyperlinked production and privilege logs allowingattorneys to immediately respond to challenges to claims of privilege,and/or to quickly search an index for a desired record and quicklyretrieve that record.

As depicted in FIG. 2 , an electronic document 204, such as anelectronic document 108 that is not associated with an email, generallyincludes a metadata portion 208 as well as body/content portion 212. Themetadata portion 208 may include document properties such as title,author, subject, creation date, modified date, and/or keywords that mayhave been set by a user who created the document in a sourceapplication, such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or by a user who created aPDF document. The metadata portion 208 may include additional metadatathat includes information that may not be visible on the face of thedocument 204, but otherwise describes or provides details related toimages, photographs, tables, and charts for example. The body portion212 of the electronic document 204 may include the actual informationintended to be conveyed by the electronic document 204. For example,data, text, images, and/or graphics may be included in the body portion212.

As depicted in FIG. 3 , an email 304 corresponding to one or more emails104 of the email console 100, may include a metadata portion 308,body/content portion 312, and one or more attachments 316. Similar tothe metadata portion 208 of the electronic document 204, the metadataportion 308 of the email 304 may include information about the email,such as information of the To:, CC:, From:, Subject:, Date:, Size:,Attachment fields. Of course, the metadata portion 308 may includeadditional metadata as well. The body/content portion 312 may includethe actual information intended to be conveyed by the email 304, such asthe body of the email. The body/content portion 312 may be in a generaltext format, or may be formatted in accordance with one or morespecifications, such as a hypertext markup language (HTML). Theattachments 316 may include one or more file attachments, such anelectronic document 204. In some instances, the body/content portion 312may include one or more electronic documents 204, such as an image,logo, signature or otherwise.

In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, the email 304may be deconstructed into each of the metadata portion 308, body/contentportion 312, and attachments 316, as depicted in FIG. 4 . Separately,each of the metadata portion 308, body/content portion 312, and/orattachments 316 may be utilized by the discovery document and privilegelog generation system to provide production and privilege documents,together with privilege and/or production logs. That is, thebody/content portion 312 may be stripped from the email 304 for example,such that the body/content portion 312 is separated from the email 304.The metadata portion 308 may be parsed to obtain email specificinformation utilized in a process for automatically tagging the email304 as a privileged or produced document. In that a produced, orprivileged, email document in a delivery ready format may include thebody/content portion 312 as well the metadata portion 308 of each of theattachments 316, the metadata portion 308 and body/content portion 312may be converted back into an email 304 without the attachment portion316 such that the email 304 stripped of the attachments 316 may beprovided in a suitable format, as depicted in FIG. 5 .

As depicted in FIG. 6 , the metadata portion 308 and the body/contentportion 312 may be converted into an email pdf document 604. The emailpdf document 604 may be formatted in appearance as, or otherwise be thesame as, the email 304 without attachments 316. Similarly, each of theattachments 316 may be converted into an attachment pdf document 608.The email pdf 604 and the attachment pdf document 608 may each berenamed and/or indexed in accordance with a predefined naming conventionor indexing system, which, in some embodiments, will not be visible tothe user but will be maintained internally. For example, the email pdf604 may be named (or indexed in the system as) Email_01, while a firstattachment pdf document 608 may be named (or indexed in the system as)Email_01_Attachment_01 for example. Accordingly, when produced, theemail pdf 604 may be presented immediately prior to the attachment pdfdocument 608. Moreover, as each email pdf 604 and attachment pdfdocument 608 are created, an entry into a log file 612 may be madetogether with metadata extracted and parsed from the metadata portions308 and metadata portions 208.

As depicted in FIG. 7 , and based on the metadata extracted from themetadata portion 308 of each email 304, a list of email addresses from aset of emails may be presented to a user in an email classificationconsole 704. The list of email addresses may be provided based on theTo:, Cc:, and/or Bcc: fields of the email 304. The email classificationconsole 704 may display the email addresses 708, a selectable privilegelabel 712 to be associated with the corresponding email address 708, andthe name 716 associated with an email address 708. The privilege label712 may be based on or otherwise associated with one or more privilegerules as will be discussed. Examples of privilege labels 712 include,but are not limited to roles, such as, “client,” “lawyer,” “consultant,”“adversary,” and “third-party.” As further depicted in FIG. 7 , theprivilege labels 712 may be selectable from a prepopulated drop-downmenu 720, although in other embodiments selection interfaces such ascheckboxes or radio buttons may be used to select the classification.

As depicted in FIG. 8 , a privilege weighting algorithm may thenclassify each of the emails 304 of the email set into a privilegecategory during a privileged/non-privileged classification process. Forexample, if any field (e.g., To:, CC:, Bcc) in the email 304 includes anemail address having the “adversary” label, the privilege weightingalgorithm may presume that the email is non-privileged, associate a“very likely produced” identifier to the email, and mark the email of afirst color, such as green. If the email 304 includes an email addresshaving the “attorney” label in the “To:” or “From:” field, and the email304 includes an email address having the “client” label in the oppositefield (e.g., if “attorney” is in the “To:” field and “client” is in the“From:” field), the privilege weighting algorithm may presume that theemail is privileged, and the discovery document and privilege loggeneration system may associate a “very likely privileged” identifier tothe email, and mark the email of a second color, such as red. If theemail 304 includes an email address having the “client” label in the“To:” or “From:” field, and the email 304 includes an email addresshaving the “attorney” and/or “consultant” label in the “CC:” and/or“BCC:” field(s), the privilege weighting algorithm may presume that theemail is likely privileged, and the discovery document and privilege loggeneration system may associate a “likely privileged” identifier to theemail, and mark the email of a third color, such as orange. If the email304 includes an email address having the “third-party” label in anyfield, the privilege weighting algorithm may presume that the email islikely not privileged, and the discovery document and privilege loggeneration system may associate a “likely produced” identifier to theemail, and mark the email of a fourth color, such as light green. If theemail 304 includes an email address having only the “attorneys” and/or“consultants” label in the “To:” or “From:” field, such that the emailis entirely between attorneys and/or consultants, the privilegeweighting algorithm may presume that the email is presumed privileged,and the discovery document and privilege log generation system mayassociate a “very likely privileged” identifier to the email, and markthe email of the second color, such as red. If the email 304 includes anemail address having the “client” label in all fields, the privilegeweighting algorithm may presume that the email is possibly produced, andthe discovery document and privilege log generation system may associatea “possibly produced” identifier to the email, and mark the email of afifth color, such as yellow. Some embodiments might modify thepredictive algorithm to exclude the designation “consultant” and topredict identical treatment of “consultant” and “attorney,” and/or mayresult in using more or fewer than five colors/categories of presumedvalues as described herein.

The emails may then be presented to a user in a privilege review console804, where a user may have the option of customizing one or moredisplayed fields, such as the From: field, Date: field, PrivilegeWeighted Category field. Moreover, the privilege review console 804 mayfurther indicate whether or not each email includes an attachment atfield 828. In addition, each email may be hyperlinked to the email pdf604 and/or the attachment pdf document 608, allowing a user to view thedocument and confirm the privileged/non-privileged designation using acheckbox 820 for example. Moreover, the user may edit aprivileged/non-privileged designation such that an email may bedesignated as non-produced in the event of an irrelevant document thatis neither produced nor privileged. In some embodiments, a user may berequired to confirm, via a checkbox 820 for example, some of theprivilege/non-privilege designation prior to completing the documentclassification process. Alternatively, or in addition, a user may berequired to confirm, via a checkbox 820 for example, each of theprivilege/non-privilege designation prior to completing the documentclassification process. In some embodiments, a user may also have theoption of designating one or more of the reviewed documents as“confidential,” via a checkbox 824 for example, such as where aprotective order exists requiring identification of confidentialdocuments.

FIG. 9 depicts details directed to applying one or more documentsequence identifiers to production and privileged documents andgenerating one or more production logs in accordance with embodiments ofthe present disclosure. Once the classification process has beencompleted and has been confirmed by the user, the discovery document andprivilege log generation system may sort each of the pdf files 604/608by privileged/non-privileged categories and then by date. Accordingly, abates number may be added to each page of each pdf file 604/608utilizing a designation provided by a user, as illustrated at 904. Thepdf file 604/608 may be renamed to correspond to the bates numbering asillustrated at 908. The discovery document and privilege log generationsystem may then generate log files 916 which may include a privilegelog, production log, and/or an irrelevant log, and/or other logs, suchas “key” or “redact” logs, whereby the logs may be ordered in accordancewith the ordering and bates number of the pdf documents 604/608/912.Each log entry may be categorized and/or comprise an entry in accordancewith the user's classification of documents, such as “privileged,”“produced,” “irrelevant,” “key,” and/or such other classifications.Additionally or alternative, each log entry may contain data relevant tosuch email or document, such as the metadata 308/708/808/812 extractedfrom the email and/or document, which may include the email address(es)contained in the “To:”, “From:”, “CC:,” and “BCC:” fields; the dateand/or time on which the email was sent; the subject of the email; thefilename of an attachment; the last-modified date of an attachment;and/or other metadata extracted from the emails and/or attachments. Inaddition, in some embodiments each log would incorporate the user'snotes as to each email or attachment (see FIG. 20 ) input by the user.In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, one or morelog files, such as the privilege log file, production log file, “key”log file, “redact” log file, etc. may be created or, if already created,appended thereto. In accordance with embodiments of the presentdisclosure, one or more log files, such as the privilege log file,production log file, and/or an irrelevant log file, may comprise anentry having a hyperlink to one or more pdf documents, such as pdfdocuments 604/608/912. In some embodiments, duplicates of each log filemay be produced, with one version containing entries comprisinghyperlinks, or other references, to a pdf document and with the otherversion containing entries comprising non-hyperlinked entries, such asdocuments themselves. The log files 916 may be in a .csv file format fordelivery to a user. The user may then receive the delivery documents 920including the pdf documents 912 together with the generated log files916, each of which may be compressed and/or encrypted prior to delivery.

FIG. 10 depicts a method 1000 directed to user account creation for thediscovery document and privilege log generation system in accordancewith embodiments of the present disclosure. Method 1000 is inembodiments, performed by and/or in conjunction with one or moredevices, such as one or more devices included in a discovery documentand privilege log generation system. More specifically, one or morehardware and software components may be involved in performing method1000. In one embodiment, one or more of the previously and/or to-bedescribed units, or devices, perform one or more of the steps of method1000. The method 1000 may be executed as a set of computer-executableinstructions executed by a mobile device, by a computing device, and/orby one or more components of a discovery document and privilege loggeneration system. One or more portions of method 1000 may be encoded orstored on a computer-readable medium. Hereinafter, the method 1000 shallbe explained with reference to systems, components, units, software,etc. described with FIGS. 1-9 .

Method 1000 may be initiated at step S1004, where a user may wish tocomplete a discovery production job. Accordingly, at step S1008, a usermay create a new account and/or sign-in into an existing accountmaintained by the discovery document and privilege log generationsystem. In instances where the user is creating a new account, themethod 1000 may proceed to step S1012 where the user may providedetails, such as username, password, and other contact information.Moreover, at step S1016, the user may be required to review and accept alicense and legal engagement agreement. At step S1020, the user mayestablish one or more payment methods and/or accounts, where suchinformation may be verified by the discovery document and privilege loggeneration system. The method 1000 may then end at step S1024.

FIG. 11 depicts a method 1100 directed to case and job creation inaccordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. Method 1100 is inembodiments, performed by and/or in conjunction with one or moredevices, such as one or more devices included in a discovery documentand privilege log generation system. More specifically, one or morehardware and software components may be involved in performing method1100. In one embodiment, one or more of the previously and/or to bedescribed units, or devices, perform one or more of the steps of method1100. The method 1100 may be executed as a set of computer-executableinstructions executed by a mobile device, by a computing device, and/orby one or more components of a discovery document and privilege loggeneration system. One or more portions of method 1100 may be encoded orstored on a computer-readable medium. Hereinafter, the method 1100 shallbe explained with reference to systems, components, units, software,etc. described with FIGS. 1-10 and 12-20 .

Method 1100 may be initiated at step S1104, where a user may wish toinitiate a discovery production job and/or task. Accordingly, at stepS1108, a user may create and/or identify a particular case. If the casealready exists, for example if a user is continuing a document privilegereview and/or if a user is performing a new privilege document reviewwith respect to an existing case as shown at step S1112, the method 1100may proceed to step S1124, where a next set, or sequence, of Batesnumber is suggested by the discovery document and privilege loggeneration system based on previously used Bates number. If the casedoes not exist, information associated with a litigation, such as butnot limited to a court, the parties involved, the case number, and adesignation of which party is the user's client, may be received from auser at step S1116. Accordingly, at step S1120, the discovery documentand privilege log generation system is initialized with Bates numbersand other user-provided information specific to the user and/or thecase. The method 1100 may then end at step S1128.

FIG. 12 depicts a method 1200 directed to obtaining one or moreelectronic documents for processing in accordance with embodiments ofthe present disclosure. Method 1200 is in embodiments, performed byand/or in conjunction with one or more devices, such as one or moredevices included in a discovery document and privilege log generationsystem. More specifically, one or more hardware and software componentsmay be involved in performing method 1200. In one embodiment, one ormore of the previously and/or to-be described units, or devices, performone or more of the steps of method 1200. The method 1200 may be executedas a set of computer-executable instructions executed by a mobiledevice, by a computing device, and/or by one or more components of adiscovery document and privilege log generation system. One or moreportions of method 1200 may be encoded or stored on a computer-readablemedium. Hereinafter, the method 1200 shall be explained with referenceto systems, components, units, software, etc. described with FIGS. 1-11and 13-20 .

Method 1200 may be initiated at step S1204, where a user may wish toinitiate a discovery production job and/or task and provide electronicdocuments to the discovery document and privilege log generation system.Accordingly, at step S1208, the flow of the method 1200 may be directedto gathering and submitting electronic documents other than emails.Accordingly, electronic documents other than emails, such as word files,excel files, and the like, may be grouped into a production folder atstep S1216. The production folder including the electronic documentsother than emails may be compressed at step S1220. For example, a usermay navigate to a folder within a web interface to select one or morefiles (e.g., .doc, .xls, etc.), which may or may not be compressed. Theuser may then place the selected electronic documents into a singleproduction folder at step S1216 and drag the folder containing theselected electronic documents into an upload area at step S1224, wherethe files may be encrypted and transmitted over a communication networkto a server of the discovery document and privilege log generationsystem at step S1228. Method 1200 may end at step S1232.

If a user needs to provide emails to the discovery document andprivilege log generation system, the discovery document and privilegelog generation system may instruct the user to collect all emails to beprocessed into a “production” folder or the like at step S1208. In someemail systems and console, the “production” folder may need to beexported into a file format that is compatible with the discoverydocument and privilege log generation system. For example, the emailsmay be exported to an .mbox file at step S1212, where the .mbox file maybe compressed at step S1220. The compressed .mbox file may then beprovided to an upload area at step S1224, where the .mbox file may beencrypted and transmitted over a computing network to a server of thediscovery document and privilege log generation system at step S1228.Method 1200 may end at step S1232. In another embodiment, step S1212 maylead directly to step S1224.

FIG. 13 depicts a method 1300 directed to preprocessing email toextract, parse, and reconstruct data obtained from one or more emaildocuments in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure.Method 1300 is in embodiments, performed by and/or in conjunction withone or more devices, such as one or more devices included in a discoverydocument and privilege log generation system. More specifically, one ormore hardware and software components may be involved in performingmethod 1300. In one embodiment, one or more of the previously and/orto-be described units, or devices, perform one or more of the steps ofmethod 1300. The method 1300 may be executed as a set ofcomputer-executable instructions executed by one or more components of adiscovery document and privilege log generation system. One or moreportions of method 1300 may be encoded or stored on a computer-readablemedium. Hereinafter, the method 1300 shall be explained with referenceto systems, components, units, software, etc. described with FIGS. 1-12and 14-20 .

Method 1300 begins at step S1304 where email may be received forprocessing. At step S1308, the discovery document and privilege loggeneration system may decrypt and uncompressed the previously receivedencrypted and compressed .mbox file. Further, as previously describedwith respect to FIGS. 2-4 , the metadata in the metadata portion 308 ofthe email 304 may be extracted and stored. For example, data in the To:,Cc:, From:, Date:, and Subject: fields may be retrieved, stored, andassociated with the specific email in a privilege/production log; suchdata may be stored to a table within a database or other file. Eachemail may then be reconstructed into an HTML format including a header,body, signature and embedded graphics if any. Attachments from theattachments 316 may be identified and labeled accordingly.

At step S1312, metadata associated with the attachments 316 may beparsed and extracted. For example, the metadata portion 208 may beparsed to retrieve information such as, but not limited to the filename,date of creation, author, and the like. At step S1316, the HTML emailand attachments, if any, are converted to another user-friendly documentformat, such as the PDF format. At step S1320, the newly created pdfdocuments may be sorted, by date for example, whereby an emailassociated with an attachment precedes the attachment. At step S1324,the emails and attachments in PDF format may be renamed with temporarynames. For example, a first email may be named Email_0.pdf and a firstattachment associated with the email may be named (or indexed in thedatabase as) Email_0_Attachment_01.pdf. Of course, other naming and/orindexing conventions may be utilized. In some embodiments, a random namemay be generated and stored in a table associating the email or documentin pdf format with one another and/or implying an ordered relationship.Thus, method 1300 ends at step S1328 with emails sequentially ordered,where attachments associated with emails directly follow the email. Forexample, the email and attachments may be ordered in the followingnon-limiting manner: Email_0,_Email_0_Attach1, Email_0_Attach2, Email_1,Email_2, Email_2_Attach_1, etc.

FIG. 14 depicts a method 1400 directed to extracting, parsing, andreconstructing data obtained from one or more electronic documents inaccordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. Method 1400 is inembodiments, performed by and/or in conjunction with one or moredevices, such as one or more devices included in a discovery documentand privilege log generation system. More specifically, one or morehardware and software components may be involved in performing method1400. In one embodiment, one or more of the previously and/or to bedescribed units, or devices, perform one or more of the steps of method1400. The method 1400 may be executed as a set of computer-executableinstructions executed by one or more components of a discovery documentand privilege log generation system. One or more portions of method 1400may be encoded or stored on a computer-readable medium. Hereinafter, themethod 1400 shall be explained with reference to systems, components,units, software, etc. described with FIGS. 1-13 and 15-20 .

Method 1400 begins at step S1404 where electronic documents may bereceived for processing. At step S1408, the discovery document andprivilege log generation system may decrypt and decompress thepreviously received encrypted and compressed electronic documents, suchas files in a Word, Pdf, Excel, or PowerPoint format for example. Atstep S1412, metadata from the metadata portion 208 may be extracted,parsed, and stored in a table within a database or other file. At stepS1416, each of the electronic documents may be converted to anotherformat, such as PDF. At step S1420, the newly created PDF files may besorted according to creation time for example, and then renamed with atemporary filename, and/or with an internal index identification, atstep S1424. Non-limiting examples of the filenames and/or internal indexidentification, may include “File_1,” “File_2,” etc. Method 1400 may endat step S1428, whereby an ordered list of files is produced.

FIG. 15 depicts a method 1500 directed to applying a privilege rulealgorithm based on extracted and parsed data obtain from one or moreemails in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. Method1500 is in embodiments, performed by and/or in conjunction with one ormore devices, such as one or more devices included in a discoverydocument and privilege log generation system. More specifically, one ormore hardware and software components may be involved in performingmethod 1500. In one embodiment, one or more of the previously and/orto-be described units, or devices, perform one or more of the steps ofmethod 1500. The method 1500 may be executed as a set ofcomputer-executable instructions executed by one or more components of adiscovery document and privilege log generation system. One or moreportions of method 1500 may be encoded or stored on a computer-readablemedium. Hereinafter, the method 1500 shall be explained with referenceto systems, components, units, software, etc. described with FIGS. 1-14and 16-20 .

Method 1500 is initiated at step S1504 and one or more tables or logfiles 612, such as a .csv table, is created at step S1508. Each row inthe table, or log file 612, may include hyperlinks to an associatedemail pdf 604 and/or attachment pdf document 608 and may further includemetadata from the metadata portion 308 and/or metadata portion 208. Aspreviously described, at step S1512, email addresses associated with themetadata portion 308 of each email may be retrieved and presented to auser for classification as previously described with respect to FIG. 7 .Accordingly, the discovery document and privilege log generation systemmay then apply a privilege rule algorithm to pre-populate probableprivileged/non-privileged status at step S1516 and as previouslydescribed with respect to FIG. 8 . That is, a privilege weightingalgorithm may classify each of the emails into a privilege categoryduring the privileged/non-privileged classification process of stepS1512. For example, if any field (e.g., To:, CC:, Bcc) in the email 304includes an email address having the “adversary” label, the privilegeweighting algorithm may presume that the email is non-privileged,associate a “presumed produce” identifier to the email, and mark theemail of a first color, such as green. If the email 304 includes anemail address having the “attorney” label in the “To:” or “From:” field,and the email 304 includes an email address having the “client” label inthe opposite field (e.g., if “attorney” is in the “To:” field and“client” is in the “From:” field), the privilege weighting algorithm maypresume that the email is privileged, and the discovery document andprivilege log generation system may associate a “presumed privileged”identifier to the email, and mark the email of a second color, such asred. If the email includes an email address having the “consultant”label in the “To:” or “From:” field, and the email includes an emailaddress having the “client” label in the opposite field (e.g., if“consultant” is in the “To:” field and “client” is in the “From:”field), the privilege weighting algorithm may presume that the email islikely to be privileged, and the discovery document and privilege loggeneration system may associate a “presumed likely privileged”identifier to the email, and mark the email of a third color, such asorange. “Consultant” may, or may not, be considered as having the samerights and privileges as “attorney.” If the email 304 includes an emailaddress having the “third-party” label in any field, the privilegeweighting algorithm may presume that the email is likely not privileged,and the discovery document and privilege log generation system mayassociate a “likely produced” identifier to the email, and mark theemail of a fourth color, such as light green. If the email 304 includesan email address having only the “attorneys” and/or “consultants” labelin the “To:” or “From:” field, such that the email is entirely betweenattorneys and/or consultants, the privilege weighting algorithm maypresume that the email is presumed privileged, and the discoverydocument and privilege log generation system may associate a “verylikely privileged” identifier to the email, and mark the email of thesecond color, such as red. If the email 304 includes an email addresshaving the “client” label in all fields, the privilege weightingalgorithm may presume that the email is possibly produced, and thediscovery document and privilege log generation system may associate a“possibly produced” identifier to the email, and mark the email of afifth color, such as yellow. Some embodiments might modify thepredictive algorithm to exclude the designation “consultant” and topredict identical treatment of “consultant” and “attorney,” and/or mayuse more or fewer than five colors/categories of presumed values asdescribed herein. Accordingly, a color-coded output including emailssorted by color may be presented to a user for review as depicted inFIG. 8 . At step S1520, the user may review, confirm, and/or correct theprivileged pre-selections. Should a document be determined by the userto be irrelevant, the document may be so designated. At step S1524, theuser may designate a reviewed document as “Confidential,” and/or “key”and/or “redacted”; in addition, the user may input notes associated witha particular document. Once completed at step S1528, method 1500 ends atstep S1532.

FIG. 16 depicts a method 1600 directed to applying one or more documentsequence identifiers to production and privileged documents andgenerating one or more production logs in accordance with embodiments ofthe present disclosure. Method 1600 is in embodiments, performed byand/or in conjunction with one or more devices, such as one or moredevices included in a discovery document and privilege log generationsystem. More specifically, one or more hardware and software componentsmay be involved in performing method 1600. In one embodiment, one ormore of the previously and/or to be described units, or devices, performone or more of the steps of method 1600. The method 1600 may be executedas a set of computer-executable instructions executed by one or morecomponents of a discovery document and privilege log generation system.One or more portions of method 1600 may be encoded or stored on acomputer-readable medium. Hereinafter, the method 1600 shall beexplained with reference to systems, components, units, software, etc.described with FIGS. 1-15 and 17-20 .

Method 1600 is initiated at step S1604, and at step S1608, files aresorted into groups of privileged documents, produced documents, andirrelevant documents based on the classification and review performed inmethod 1500. At step S1612, the discovery document and privilege loggeneration system may add Bates numbers to each page of each PDF filestarting with the designation and page number provided by the user atstep S1120 and/or suggested by the discovery document and privilege loggeneration system in step S1124. Likewise, at step S1612, the discoverydocument and privilege log generation system may add a “Confidentiality”or other custom legend to each page of each document designated by theuser to receive a “Stamp”. Accordingly, the discovery document andprivilege log generation system may rename each of the files in stepS1616 renames files to match the Bates numbers. For example, anelectronic document may be named “Def.001001-Def.001013” followed by“Def.001014”. Importantly, the discovery document and privilege loggeneration system maintains the order of emails followed by attachments.That is, a sequence of documents may include a pdf of the email followedby a pdf of attachments, if any, followed by another email. In someembodiments, if the user has designated a document as a “Key” document,an extra copy of the “Key” document is placed in a “Key” folder to bereturned to the user. In another embodiment, “key” and/or “redact” logsmay be produced.

At step S1620, the references to the electronic documents in the one ormore tables, such as a .csv table, may be sorted according to privilege,production, and irrelevant log. The sorted log file, for example logfile 612, may be split into a production log file, a privileged logfile, and an irrelevant log file. The production log file includes alldocuments categorized as production or that can be produced. Theprivileged log file includes all documents categorized as privileged,and the irrelevant log file includes all documents reviewed that are notrelevant to the litigation, and will neither be produced nor withheldunder a claim of privilege. In some embodiments, additional logs may beproduced, such as a log of every document designated as “key.” Each log,which would correspond to the user's classification of documents as“privileged,” “produced,” “irrelevant,” “key,” and/or such otherclassifications as the particular embodiment encompasses, may containdata relevant to such email or document, such as the metadata308/708/808/812 extracted from the email and/or document, which mayinclude the email address(es) contained in the “To:”, “From:”, “CC:,”and “BCC:” fields; the date and/or time on which the email was sent; thesubject of the email; the filename of an attachment; the last-modifieddate of an attachment; and/or other metadata extracted from the emailsand/or attachments. In addition, each log may incorporate the user'snotes as to each email or attachment (see FIG. 20 ) input by the user.For documents designated as “redact” by the user (see FIG. 20 ), a“redact” notation may be added to the record for such document in theproduction log to remind the user to redact the final pdf beforeproduction. Each of the log files may then be sorted to match an orderof the pdf documents, 912 for example. In some embodiments, thefilenames in the log files are renamed to match the file names of stepS1616. At step S1624, each of the log files may then be duplicated,where a first set is for internal use and the second set is forproduction. Thus, the set of log files for internal use may includehyperlinks to the corresponding pdf files for use by the user or lawfirm. The second set of log files (i.e., the set of log files to beprovided in response to a request for production) may not includehyperlinks to the corresponding pdf files. At step S1628, the files 912and logs 916 may be encrypted and may be made available to the user atstep S1632, such that the user may be able to download the deliverydocuments 920 from the discovery document and privilege log generationsystem. Method 1600 may end at step S1636.

FIG. 17 depicts a method 1700 directed to transferring deliverables inaccordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. Method 1700 is inembodiments, performed by and/or in conjunction with one or moredevices, such as a mobile device, computing device, and/or one or moredevices included in a discovery document and privilege log generationsystem. More specifically, one or more hardware and software componentsmay be involved in performing method 1700. In one embodiment, one ormore of the previously and/or to be described units, or devices, performone or more of the steps of method 1700. The method 1700 may be executedas a set of computer-executable instructions executed by one or morecomponents of a discovery document and privilege log generation system.One or more portions of method 1700 may be encoded or stored on acomputer-readable medium. Hereinafter, the method 1700 shall beexplained with reference to systems, components, units, software, etc.described with FIGS. 1-16 and 18-20 .

Method 1700 is initiated at step S1704, where at step S1708, a user mayreceive a notification that the delivery documents 920 are ready andavailable. For example, a device associated with a user, such as amobile device, may receive a notification, such as an email or textmessage, that the delivery documents 920 are available. At step S1712,an invoice may be provided to the user. Once the discovery document andprivilege log generation system has received acceptance of chargesand/or payment from the user, the encrypted deliverables 920 may betransferred to the user, via email, a download, or otherwise at stepS1716. In accordance with a preplanned and established file retentionpolicy, the deliverable documents 920 may be removed from the discoverydocument and privilege log generation system at step S1720. Method 1700may then end at step S1724.

FIG. 18 depicts details of a block diagram directed to a discoverydocument and privilege log generation system 1800 in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure. As depicted in FIG. 18 , acomputing device, such as 1804, may communicate with one or more servers1808 of the discovery document and privilege log generation system 1800via a communication network 1812. The communication network 1812 maycomprise any type of known communication medium or collection ofcommunication media and may use any type of known protocols to transportmessages between endpoints. The communication network 1812 is generallya wireless communication network employing one or more wirelesscommunication technologies; however, the communication network 1812 mayinclude one or more wired components and may implement one or more wiredcommunication technologies. The Internet is an example of thecommunication network 1812 that constitutes an Internet Protocol (IP)network consisting of many computers, computing networks, and othercommunication devices located all over the world, which are connectedthrough many networked systems and other means.

The computing device 1804 and the one or more servers 1808 may include aprocessor 1816, memory 1820, a communication interface 1824, receive oneor more inputs 1828, provide one or more outputs 1832, and may includestorage 1836. In certain embodiments, a processor may be a virtualprocessor which provides the appearance to the user and/or software tobe a dedicated processing device(s). In such embodiments, the virtualprocessor executes instructions, often utilizing one instruction set, tocause the underlying physical processors, which may be dedicated orshared by other software and/or users, to perform the operationsdescribed herein, which may be the same or a different instruction setin accordance with the processors circuitry and immutable instructions(e.g., firmware).

The computing device 1804 and/or the server 1808 may also be providedwith power 1840, where the processor 1816, memory 1820, communicationinterface 1824, inputs 1828, outputs 1832, storage 1836, and power 1840may be coupled to one another via one or more buses 1844. The processor1816 may be implemented as any suitable type of microprocessor orsimilar type of processing chip, such as any general-purposeprogrammable processor, digital signal processor (DSP) or controller forexecuting application programming contained within memory 1820.Alternatively, or in addition, the processor 1816 and memory 1820 may bereplaced or augmented with an application specific integrated circuit(ASIC), a programmable logic device (PLD), or a field programmable gatearray (FPGA).

The memory 1820 generally comprises software routines facilitating, inoperation, pre-determined functionality of the computing device 1804 orserver 1808. The memory 1820 may be implemented using various types ofelectronic memory generally including at least one array of non-volatilememory cells (e.g., Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EPROM) cellsor flash memory cells, etc.). The memory 1820 may also include at leastone array of Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) cells. The content ofthe DRAM cells may be pre-programmed and write-protected thereafter,whereas other portions of the memory may be selectively modified orerased. The memory 1820 may be used for either permanent data storage ortemporary data storage.

Alternatively, or in addition, storage 1836 may be provided. The storage1836 may generally include storage electronic documents and/or logfiles. The storage 1836 associated with the computing device 1804 orserver 1808 may also provide storage for operating system software,programs, and program data.

FIG. 19 depicts details console 1900 relating to classifying emailaddresses for use with an automated privilege rule algorithm inaccordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. Emails 1904displayed in details console 1900 may be based on the metadata extractedfrom the metadata portion 308 of each email 304, a list of emailaddresses 1904 may then be presented to a user on detail console 1900.In one embodiment, a data structure is illustrated as comprising, numberof emails 1902, email address 1904, and indicators, such as a checkboxfor one or more attributes, which may include one or more of client1906, attorney 1908, adverse party 1910, and/or third-party 1920.

FIGS. 20A-20B depict details console 2000 relating to applying aprivilege weighted category to one or more emails in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure. Details console 2000 isillustrated herein in segments comprising a left portion, illustrated byFIG. 20A, and a right portion, illustrated by FIG. 20B. In oneembodiment, and as described in more detail with respect to thepreceding embodiments, a privilege weighting algorithm may classify eachof the emails 304 of the email set into a privilege category during aprivileged/non-privileged classification process. The emails to bedisplayed may be determined or ordered, in whole or in part, by ordering2002, filtering by production category 2004, filter by selected category2006, specific email attributes 2008. Displayed content may includesubject/file name 2010, date the email was sent (or last modified) 2012,from 2014, to 2016, carbon/curtesy copy/blind CC (“CC/BCC”) 2018, and/ornotes 2020. Emails may have attachments identified in attachment portion2022/2024.

Emails may then be presented to a user in a details console 2000, wherea user may have the option of customizing one or more displayed fields.In particular notes, 2020/2026 may be added. Moreover, details console2000 may further indicate whether or not each email includes anattachment at attachment portion 2022/2024. A user may edit designationsprovided by classification algorithm, the designations may be altered byselecting/unselecting privileged indicator 2032, production indicator2034, key indicator 2036 such as documents to be returned, (Bates) stampindicator 2038, irrelevant indicator 2040, and/or redaction indicator2042. When a user has competed any reclassifications, an indication ofthe completeness may be selected, such as by selecting “finished”indicator 2030. Indicia 2044 provides a visual representation of aprocessor determined value that has been confirmed, such as by a user.For example, an email from one party, known to be associated with“privilege” may be sent to another party and a subsequent email fromthat party may be defaulted similarly, such as to “privileged.” A usermay be prompted to confirm the status and, once the status is confirmed,indicia 2044 may indicate the confirmed state, such as by color and/oricon.

In another embodiment, certain data may not be altered. For example, ifall emails from a particular party are deemed to be privileged, then anemail from that party, may be identified as privileged (e.g., check boxassociated with privilege 2032) set and fixed. In another embodiment, auser may require authorization or obtain such otherization, in order tochanged fixed attributes.

FIGS. 21-30 depict processes 2100-3000, inclusive and respectively. Anyone or more processes 2100-3000 and/or modules 3002-3014 may beimplemented by processor 1816 executing instructions as a portion ofsystem 1800 or portions thereof, such as server 1808 and/or computingdevice 1804. In another embodiment, data may be maintained on anexternal data storage and/or processing service, such as a “cloud”processor (e.g., Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, etc.), which ispreferably encrypted in transmission (to and from) and in while in“cloud” storage. As a benefit, access to unencrypted data is prevented,absent an authorized password or other decryption key. For example,personnel having access to server 1800 would not have access to data, orat least unencrypted data, comprising discovery documents.

FIG. 21 depicts process flow 2100 in accordance with embodiments of thepresent disclosure. In one embodiment, step 2102 is a user sign-in and,if not already created, account creation as a prerequisite to sign-in toa system, such as system 1800. Step 2104 collects user data, step 2106prompts and/or manages user agreements, such as between the user of thesystem and the system provider, such as an owner, operator, or serviceprovider of system 1800 or of at least server 1808 (e.g., DiscoveryGenie). Payment information is received and processed, via a credit cardprocessor (not shown), in step 2108.

FIG. 22 depicts case/job creation process flow 2200 in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure. In one embodiment, step 2202receives a selection of a case, which may be created if not already inexistence. Step 2204 determines if the case exits and, if no, step 2206executes which creates the case comprising data elements, such as court,case number, party identities, and/or client identifier. If step 2204 isdetermined in the affirmative, step 2208 creates the job (e.g., adiscrete submission of electronic data for processing). A user mayprovide a Bates number prefix for records that will be marked asprivileged and/or produced. Step 2210 may prepopulate a Bates numberwith a next sequential Bates number.

FIG. 23 depicts upload process flow 2300 in accordance with embodimentsof the present disclosure. In one embodiment, step 2302 evaluates therecord to determine if they are files, such as documents, or emails. Ifemail, processing continues to step 2304 where the platform isdetermined. If the platform is “client” wherein the email is storedlocally to a machine, such as computing platform 1804 via internal orattached storage for use by an application executing on the machine(e.g., Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird, etc.), and processing continuesto step 2306 wherein emails are gathered into a production folder.Processing then proceeds to step 2312 which presents the contents of thefolder indexing or holding the gathered emails. If step 2304 determinesthe emails are “web”, wherein emails are stored on a server of an emailservice provider (e.g., gmail, hotmail, etc.), processing continues tostep 2310 whereby emails will be marked to be produced with a uniquelabel. Step s2310 and 2312 may then precede step 2314 which export theemails to a “.mbox” file.

In another embodiment, step 2302 when determined to be “files” precedesstep 2308 which compresses the file, such as into a “.zip” file. Step2308 may also compress the “.mbox” file into a “.zip” file. Step 2316then allows the user to drag the “.zip” file into an “upload” area foruploading by step 2318 wherein the encrypted and compressed file isuploaded to the system, such as for storage in storage 1836, which maybe embodied as a web-based “cloud” storage system.

FIG. 24 depicts email preprocessing process flow 2400 in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure. In one embodiment, process 2400preprocesses emails such as by extracting from the “.mbox” file in step2404 and decrypting, uncompressing, or otherwise allowing the email tobe in a readable form in step 2402. Step 2402 may strip and storingmetadata from each email and convert emails to HTML format. Emailscomprising a number of parts (e.g., attachments, embedded portions,etc.) may be reconstructed. In one embodiment, an email parser, such asMHonArc, may be utilized for the conversion to HTML.

In another embodiment, one or more metadata (e.g., To, From, CC, Date,Subject) may be stripped and stored in the privileged or production logand may further be converted to an HTML header. Step 2404 mayreconstruct emails into HTML-format files. Emails may be reconstructedsuch as by one or more of, reconstruction of the header, body,signature, embedded graphics, the identification and labeling ofattachments in body of email, and the saving as an HTML file.

Step 2406 converts the emails, in HTML format, into PDF format. Emailsmay be sorted by time and sub-sorted by attachment in step 2408. Step2410 renames and saves emails, which may comprise the use of astandardized naming format (e.g., “email01.pdf”, “email02.pdf”,“attachment1.pdf”, “attachment2.pdf.” etc.).

FIG. 25 depicts file preprocessing process flow 2500 in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure. In one embodiment, process 2500extracts metadata from document files (e.g., filename, creation data,file type, etc.) and stores the metadata in the privileged or productionlog accordingly and/or makes the stored data available for subsequentprocessing. Step 2502 decrypts, de-compresses, and extracts the files.Step 2404 extracts and stores the metadata. Step 2506 converts the filesto PDF formatio. Step 2508 sorts the files by creation time. Step 2510renames the files with temporary file names (e.g., “File1”, “File2”,etc.).

FIG. 26 depicts privilege review process flow 2600 in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure. In one embodiment, in step 2602,system 1800 creates “.csv” (Excel-compatible) table with (a) hyperlinksto preprocessed .pdf files, plus (b) metadata from preprocessed files.For emails: User labels email addresses as “client,” “lawyer,”“consultant,” “adversary,” “third-party”; default is “third-party”

Step 2604, executes a privilege-rule algorithm, which may comprise anyone or more of:

Test for “adversary” in any field—presumption, non-privileged. Mark,such as with a color (e.g., green), to indicate a presumption toproduce.

Test for “attorney” in “To” or “From” field, plus “client” in oppositefield. Mark, such as with a color (e.g., red), to indicate a presumptionof privilege.

Test for “consultant” in “To” or “From” field, plus “client” in oppositefield. Mark, such as with a color (e.g., orange) to indicate apresumption of likely privileged.

Test for “third-party” in any field. Mark, such as with a color (e.g.,light green) to indicate a presumption of likely not privileged.

Test for email entirely between “attorneys” and/or “consultants”. Mark,such as with a color (e.g., red) to indicate a presumption of privilege.

Test for “client” in all fields. Mark yellow, i.e., possibly produced.

Test for “client” in “To” and “From”, and “attorney” or “consultant” in“CC”. Mark, such as with a color (e.g., light orange) to indicate apossibility of privileged.

Sort by designated marker, such as color, when used. The results maythen be presented on a display for presentation to a user in step 2606

Step 2606 presents the results to the user. Step 2606 may present thedata with selection of “privileged” or “non-privileged” prepopulated peralgorithm. The user may then confirms/corrects designation, usinghyperlink to view document, and radio buttons to indicate correctclassification. The user has the option to designate any file as“non-produced,” i.e., irrelevant and neither produced nor privileged.

User hits “Complete” button to complete classification process, which isreceived in step 2608.

FIG. 27 depicts file delivery process flow 2700 in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure. In one embodiment, step 2702provides files sorted into categories for production, privilege,irrelevant, and/or other designation. Step 2702 adds Bates numbers tothe PDF files. Step 2704 renames the file to reflect the Batesnumbering. Step 2706 compresses and encrypts the file for delivery tothe user.

FIG. 28 depicts privilege and production log completion process flow2800 in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. In oneembodiment, step 2802 receives an indication the user has completedprocessing by confirming or, if necessary, correcting the processor(e.g., processor 1816) provided designations. Step 2804 sorts documentsby their corresponding order provided in the respective log file. Forexample, all “production” documents are sorted into the order providedby the production log. Step 2806 provides annotations, such as the Batesnumbers originating with the designated prefix. Step 2808 then renamesthe files to correspond to their respective Bates number. Supportingdocuments are created in step 2810, such as a file, such as in .cvsformat, for each log (e.g., privilege log, production log and reviewedlog). Step 2812 deletes irrelevant files, such as those absent on aproduction or privileged log, such that the space utilized to store suchirrelevant files, such as on storage 1836 and/or memory 1820, may bemade available for other uses. Step 2814 then applies compresses, suchas into a single or plurality of .zip files and optionally applies anencryption before or after compression, and the compressed files arethen available for uploading to the user, such as by following agenerated or provided link.

FIG. 29 depicts payment, data retrieval, and data retention process flow2900 in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. In oneembodiment, step 2902 formats and/or sends a notification to a user(e.g., to computing device 1804). Step 2904 initiates invoicing/paymentprocessing. Step 2906 provides a link or other means by which a user maydownload encrypted deliverables. Step 2908 causes pdfs to be stored andmarked for automatic deletion, such as upon passage of 30-days. Logs maybe retained until a user initiates deletion, or deleted based on systemrules, such as within 180 days.

FIG. 30 depicts overview process flow 3000 in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure. In one embodiment, accountmanagement block 3002 manages the user's account, such as names, firm,roles, etc. case/job management module 3004 creates and relates cases tothe user account and firm and relates jobs to a particular case.Upload/parser module 3006 accepts the upload of data archives from theuser and processes the data (i) to use selected data to create aninterim image of the final document, and then (ii) convert that image toa final form, such as PDF. Data is related to a particular job.

Classification/Prediction Module 3008 receives metadata from Parser3006, and, upon input from the user, applies an algorithm to predictlikelihood of privilege. Data related to the case is retained. Thereview module 3010 receives input from the user, including instructionsto modify PDFs. The Finisher 3912 applies the user's input to modify thePDFs by adding Bates numbers, custom stamps, and/or discardingirrelevant files, and generates one or more logs. The user downloadsoutput in download block 3014.

In another embodiment, a processor, such as processor 1816, may performembodiments disclosed herein upon retrieving from storage 1836 and/ormemory 1820 one or more modules comprising machine-executableinstructions for processor 1816 the execution of the instructions beingthe execution of the one or more modules, which may include an accountmanagement module 3002, a case/job management module 3004, upload/parsermodule 3004, classification/privilege prediction module 3008, reviewmodule 3010, finisher module 3012, and/or download module 3014.

Account Management Module 3002: The account management module 3002contains user data, including the user's firm/organization. Thefirm/organization designation enables case and job sharing among usersbelonging to the same firm/organization. Account management module 3002may also maintain billing and payment information, as well as custompricing, if applicable, for the firm, organization, and/or user.

Case/Job Management Module 3004: The case/job management module 3004manages cases, and relates each case to a user, and, if the “owner” ofthe case directs, to other users and/or the user's firm. This permitsthe sharing of cases between one or more users. Case/job managementmodule 3004 also manages jobs, which are related to a case, and are alsorelated to a user, as well as other users who have permissions to thecase. Case/job management module 3004 may also allow the user to createa job by causing the generation of an email request (sent by the system)to a client, to permit the client to upload the raw data using theupload parser module 3006; once received and processed, the job isprocessed for (and with the input from) the user who originally createdthe job.

Upload/Parser Module 3006: The upload/parser module 3006 accepts fromthe user the upload of raw data, such as archives of electroniccommunications or archives of electronic documents which may be storedin a temporary storage (e.g., one or more of storage 1836, memory 1820,etc.). Following receipt of the upload, the upload/parser module 3006performs a number of steps to manage, streamline, and convert the rawdata:

A) For archives of electronic communications, the upload/parser module3006:

Selects certain metadata for storage (e.g., in one or more of storage1836, memory 1820) in one or more format structures:

-   -   Metadata usable for additional jobs within the same case, such        as email addresses is retained and stored, and related to the        case and the job.    -   Metadata identifying the message itself (message ID) is        temporarily stored for future use.    -   Metadata usable only for the instant Job, such as Subject, Date,        To, From, CC, BCC is retained, while other metadata, such as        routing and server information, is extracted from the raw data        and deleted.

Tests each email using the message ID previously retained to test forduplicates. If duplicate email messages are found, one copy is retained,and all others are deleted.

Scans the raw data of electronic communications for attachments, such aselectronic documents. The content disposition of such attachments, i.e.,“inline” or “attachment,” is analyzed. Each attachment is compared to alist of common system-generated names, and attachments meeting certaincriteria are further processed to eliminate generation of certainattachments (such as email signatures, inline links to external sources,etc.) as standalone attachment documents.

Constructs an interim representation of an email in an interim format,such as HTML, to create the header, body, inline attachments, and listof attachments in a format recognizable to the user as an email. The rawdata used to construct the HTML representation is deleted.

Converts the interim representation of the email to PDF. The dataconsisting of the interim HTML representation is deleted. Also relatesthe email, in PDF format, to the job and causes the email to be stored(e.g., in one or more of storage 1836, memory 1820) for furtherprocessing.

Applies a unique name to the PDF representation of the email to identifythe PDF file unambiguously (e.g., unique to a job and/or user).

Converts attachments designated as true attachments, as opposed toinline attachments to PDF, and relates the PDF to the PDF form of theemail to which they are attachments. Also relates the attachment in PDFform to the job and stores the attachment (e.g., in one or more ofstorage 1836, memory 1820) for further processing.

-   -   For attachments that are already in PDF format, the system        converts the received PDF to a uniform size with a correct        orientation. The original PDF data is deleted.

Applies a unique name to the converted PDF for unambiguouslyidentification.

B) For archives of electronic documents, the upload/parser module 3006:

Selects certain metadata, such as filename, file path, last datemodified, and other metadata usable for additional jobs for storage(e.g., in one or more of storage 1836, memory 1820) for furtherprocessing. Other metadata, such as user notes or other metadata, isdeleted.

Electronic documents are converted to PDF format.

-   -   For documents that cannot be converted to PDF, such as .mp3        files, the original file format is retained.    -   For attachments that were received in PDF format, the system        converts the received PDF to a uniform size with a correct        orientation. The original PDF data is deleted.    -   After conversion to PDF, the original raw data used to create        such PDFs is deleted.

Applies a unique name to the converted PDF for unambiguousidentification (e.g., job unique, user unique, etc.).

C) Metadata to be used for further processing, plus the PDFs generatedby the upload/parser module 3006 are stored for further processing byother modules.

D) Following processing of the raw data by the Parser, the original rawdata received from the user is deleted.

Classification/Privilege Prediction Module 3008: Theclassification/privilege module 3008 retrieves metadata, such as emailaddresses, stored by the upload/parser module 3006, and causes theretrieved metadata to be presented for user input. Specifically, theuser classifies the metadata, such as email addresses, according to therole the owner of the address plays in the litigation, such as attorney,client, adverse party, or third party. The user input is related to themetadata, related to the case and the job, and stored for future jobswithin the case, and also stored for additional processing within thesame job. If a user declines to classify any particular email address,the system 1800 assigns the address a default value, such as thirdparty. When the user completes the classification process, theclassification/privilege module 3008 performs the following steps:

-   -   Creates a list of every email address within the job, and stores        with each email address the classification assigned by the user        in the classification module.    -   Retrieves the metadata stored by the parser consisting of the        email addresses contained in the To, From, CC and BCC fields.    -   Compares the email addresses found in the various To, From, CC        and BCC fields against a template of discovery rules stored by        the system, which classifies each email into the following        predicted privilege categories: Very Likely Privileged, Likely        Privileged, Possibly Produced, Likely Produced, and Very Likely        Produced. The predicted value for each email is associated with        the email and the metadata for that email, stored for future        use.

Review Module 3010: The Review Module 3010 retrieves (a) the metadatastored for each email and attachment (or, in the case of an archive ofelectronic documents, the metadata stored for each such document), and(b) the predicted privilege value for each item for display to the userand to receive an associated input. At the direction of the user, thesystem 1800 retrieves the PDF of the selected email, attachment orelectronic document for presentation on a user device for receiving aninput from the user upon review. The user classifies the item into oneof three categories: Privileged, Produced or Irrelevant. This categoryis related to the item and stored. The user may also provide additionaldata, such as notes, designation as “key,” designation as “Stamp” (i.e.,to have the custom stamp designated by the User, such as “Confidential,”added to the final PDF), and/or designation for future redaction. Allsuch input is related to the selected item and stored.

In some embodiments, the review module 3010 permits the user to “split”an item, i.e., split the PDF into two PDFs. In this situation, whileviewing the image of the PDF, indicate where (such as, for example,between pages 3 and 4 of an original PDF) to split the PDF into twosections. The original filename associated with the item will continueto be associated with the first PDF, while the User is prompted to inputa new filename for the second PDF. The new “split” PDFs are then relatedto the user and the job and stored; the original PDF (i.e., before theuser split the original PDF into two new PDFs) is deleted. All othermetadata applicable to the original PDF, which is already related to thefirst PDF, is retained; such metadata is duplicated and a copy of suchmetadata is associated with the second PDF. The user may split a PDFmultiple times.

Finisher Module 3012: The finisher module 3012 retrieves informationrelated to the job, such as the Bates prefix selected by the user, thenext number in the Bates series (both privileged and produced), and thetext for the custom stamp input by the user. The finisher module 3012causes the display of stored data to the user and accepts anymodifications by the user, and then stores the result. The finishermodule 3012 then retrieves (a) the PDFs for each item in the job, (b)the classification (Privileged, Produced or Irrelevant) for each item,and (c) the other data input by the user in the review module 3010. Thefinisher module 3012 then sorts all items, first according toclassification (Privileged, Produced or Irrelevant), then, forPrivileged and Produced, by the date metadata of the email, or the datemetadata of the document. Attachments to emails are placed in sequenceafter the email to which they are attached. The finisher module 3012then processes each PDF to add the appropriate Bates number and (ifapplicable) custom stamp to each Privileged and Produced record. Thefinisher module 3012 deletes the PDFs for records designated as“Irrelevant.” The Finisher then renames each PDF (or, if the originalfile format was retained because the item could not be converted to PDF,the original file) by the Bates prefix and numbers, such as“Def.1001-1003.” The finisher module 3012 then retrieves the metadatafor each item and uses that metadata to generate one or more logs, suchas a privilege log, a “production log,” and/or a “key document log.” Thefinisher module 3012 may generate additional logs with hyperlinkslinking the filename in the log to the PDF file. The finisher module3012 then places the PDFs and logs into appropriate electronic foldersand subfolders, and then compresses the entire output into a finaloutput .zip file, which is related to the Job and stored. Except formetadata stored for future jobs and data related to the job itself(number of produced/privileged/irrelevant files processed, number ofpages, date and time job was completed, cost), the PDFs and metadataused to generate the logs is deleted.

Download Module 3014: The download module 3014 causes a notification tobe created and transmitted to a device (e.g., computing device 1804) tonotify the user that the job is ready for download, and establishes, ifnecessary, and provides a link to permit the user to retrieve the finaloutput .zip folder. When the user activates the download link, the finaloutput .zip file is transmitted to the user, and the date and time ofthe initial download is stored. The system 1800 monitors the date andtime of the initial download of each job; for a certain period of timedesignated by the system, the User may retrieve as many copies of thefinal output .zip file, after which the final output .zip file isdeleted from the system.

While the above-described flowcharts and state diagrams have beendiscussed in relation to a particular sequence of events, it should beappreciated that changes to this sequence can occur without materiallyaffecting the operation of the invention. Additionally, the exactsequence of events need not occur as set forth in the exemplaryembodiments. The exemplary techniques illustrated herein are not limitedto the specifically illustrated embodiments but can also be utilizedwith the other exemplary embodiments and each described feature isindividually and separately claimable.

Furthermore, the disclosed methods may be readily implemented insoftware, which are a constrained set of instructions for conversion tomachine code executable by a processor(s), or comprise a using object orobject-oriented software development environments that provide portablesource code that can be used on a variety of computer or workstationplatforms. Alternatively, the disclosed system may be implementedpartially or fully in hardware using standard logic circuits or VLSIdesign. Whether software or hardware is used to implement the systems inaccordance with this invention is dependent on the speed and/orefficiency requirements of the system, the particular function, and theparticular software or hardware systems or microprocessor ormicrocomputer systems being utilized. The analysis systems, methods, andprotocols illustrated herein can be readily implemented in hardwareand/or software using any known or later developed systems orstructures, devices and/or software by those of ordinary skill in theapplicable art from the functional description provided herein and witha general basic knowledge of the communication and computer arts.

Moreover, one or more portions of the disclosed methods may be readilyimplemented in software that can be stored on a storage medium, executedon a programmed general-purpose computer with the cooperation of acontroller and memory, a special purpose computer, a microprocessor, orthe like. The system can also be implemented by physically incorporatingthe system and/or method into a software and/or hardware system, such asthe hardware and software systems of a communications device or system.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for document compaction, comprising:receiving a set of electronic documents, wherein one or more electronicdocuments includes an attached electronic document; extracting andstoring metadata associated with each electronic document of the set ofelectronic documents including the attached electronic document; parsingthe metadata to extract information identifying a sender and a receiver;reconstructing and converting each electronic document of the set ofelectronic documents into a first format, wherein the first format isimmutable, with respect to contents of each electronic document of theset of electronic documents; setting a file name for each electronicdocument of the set of electronic documents to indicate an order in anordered relationship (a) between each electronic document of the set ofelectronic documents and (b) between one or more electronic documents ofthe set of electronic documents and the attached electronic document andwherein the order comprises a number ordering of the set of electronicdocuments; classifying each electronic document of the set of electronicdocuments as based on the extracted and stored metadata; groupingsimilar electronic documents in the first format based on aclassification; and providing a grouping of similar electronicdocuments, together with one or more document logs identifying eachdocument in the grouping of similar electronic documents, to a user. 2.The method of claim 1, further comprising: storing the grouping ofsimilar electronic documents identified as producible, and absentmembers of the set of electronic documents identified as privileged, ina data storage.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein: the first format isimmutable, with respect to the contents of each electronic document ofthe set of electronic documents and annotatable without changing thecontents thereof: and reconstructing and converting further comprisesannotating each electronic document of the set of electronic documentscomprising providing Bates numbering on each document page of eachelectronic document of the electronic documents.
 4. The method of claim1, wherein: the first format is immutable, with respect to the contentsof each electronic document of the set of electronic documents andannotatable without changing the contents thereof: and reconstructingand converting further comprises annotating each electronic document ofthe set of electronic documents comprising providing confidentialityindicator on each document page of each electronic document of theelectronic documents identified as confidential.
 5. The method of claim1, wherein the extracted and stored metadata comprises a role associatedwith one of the sender or recipient of one of the one or more electronicdocuments, when the one of the one or more electronic documents is acommunication.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the communication is atleast one of a group of communication types comprising an email, textmessage, multimedia message, and social media message.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: receiving a user input indicating areclassification and a target document; and reclassifying the targetdocument, comprising at least one electronic document of the set ofelectronic documents as privileged or producible based on the userinput.
 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: reconstructing andconverting each electronic document of the set of electronic documentsinto the first format, wherein the reconstruction and convertingmaintains the ordering between the one or more electronic documents andthe attached electronic document identified as producible and notidentified as privileged.
 9. A method for document management,comprising: receiving an electronic document; extracting and storingmetadata associated with the electronic document; reconstructing andconverting the electronic document into a first format wherein the firstformat is immutable, with respect to contents of the electronicdocument; setting a file name for the electronic document to indicate anorder in an ordered relationship (a) between the electronic document anda set of electronic documents and (b) between the electronic documentand an attached electronic document, wherein the attached electronicdocument is an attachment to the electronic document and wherein theorder comprises a date ordering of the set of electronic documents;classifying the electronic document based on the extracted and storedmetadata; and providing the classified electronic document, togetherwith a document log identifying the electronic document, to a user. 10.The method of claim 9, further comprises: wherein the receiving of theelectronic document further comprises receiving the set of electronicdocuments; wherein the extracting and storing of the metadata associatedwith the electronic document further comprises extracting and storingmetadata associated with each electronic document of the set ofelectronic documents; wherein the reconstructing and converting of theelectronic document into the first format comprises reconstructing andconverting each electronic document of the set of electronic documentsinto the first format; wherein the classifying of the electronicdocument as one of privileged or producible based on the extracted andstored metadata comprises classifying each electronic document of theset of electronic documents as privileged or producible based on theextracted and stored metadata; and grouping similar electronic documentsin the first format based on a privilege and producibilityclassification; and wherein the providing of the electronic document,together with document log identifying the electronic document, to auser comprises providing the grouping of similar electronic documents,together with one or more document logs identifying each document in thegrouping of similar electronic documents, to the user.
 11. The method ofclaim 9, further comprising storing the grouping of similar electronicdocuments identified as producible, and absent members of the set ofelectronic documents identified as privileged, in a data storage. 12.The method of claim 9, wherein reconstructing and converting eachelectronic document of the set of electronic documents into the firstformat, further comprises converting the electronic documents, having aplurality of file types, into a single file type.
 13. A system fordocument management, comprising: a processor with a communicationinterface; a data repository accessible, via the communicationinterface, to the processor; wherein the processor: receives anelectronic document; extracts and stores metadata associated with theelectronic document; reconstructs and converts the electronic documentinto a first format wherein the first format is immutable, with respectto contents of each electronic document of a set of electronicdocuments; sets a file name for each electronic document of the set ofelectronic documents to indicate an order in an ordered relationship (a)between each electronic document of the set of electronic documents and(b) between a plurality of electronic documents of the set of electronicdocuments and an attached electronic document and wherein the ordercomprises one or more of a number ordering of the set of electronicdocuments or a date order of each electronic document of the set ofelectronic documents; classifies the electronic document based on thepreviously extracted and stored metadata; and provides the electronicdocument, together with a document log identifying the electronicdocument, to a display device for viewing by a user.
 14. The system ofclaim 13, wherein the processor: receives the electronic documentcomprising receiving a set of electronic documents; extracts and storesmetadata associated with each electronic document of the set ofelectronic documents; reconstructs and converts each electronic documentof the set of electronic documents into the first format; classifieseach electronic document of the set of electronic documents asprivileged or producible based on the extracted and stored metadata;groups similar electronic documents in the first format based on theprivilege and producibility classification; and provides a grouping ofdocuments, together with one or more document logs identifying eachdocument in the grouping of documents, to the device for viewing by theuser.
 15. The system of claim 14, wherein reconstructing and convertingeach electronic document of the set of electronic documents into a firstformat, further comprises converting the electronic documents, having aplurality of file types, into a single file type.
 16. The system ofclaim 13, wherein the single file type is a portable document format(PDF).
 17. The system of claim 13, wherein the extracted and storedmetadata comprises a role associated with one of the sender or recipientof one of the plurality of electronic documents, when one of theplurality of electronic documents is a communication.
 18. The system ofclaim 17, wherein the communication is at least one of a group ofcommunication types comprising an email, text message, multimediamessage, and social media message.
 19. The system of claim 13, furthercomprising: the processor further receives a user input indicating areclassification and a target document; and the processor furtherreclassifies the target document, comprising at least one electronicdocument of the set of electronic documents as privileged or produciblebased on the user input.
 20. The system of claim 13, further comprising:the processor further reconstructs and converts each electronic documentof the set of electronic documents into the first format, wherein thereconstruction and converting maintain an ordering between a pluralityof electronic documents and the attached electronic document identifiedas producible and not identified as privileged.